Stock Market & Financial Investment News

Cliffs Natural announces extended supply agreement with ArcelorMittal Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF) announced that it has entered into a revised commercial agreement with ArcelorMittal (MT) USA to supply iron ore pellets for an additional two years through the end of January 2017, with a mutual option to extend for a third year. In addition, Cliffs and ArcelorMittal USA have also extended their joint partnership for the Empire Mine located on the Marquette Iron Range in Michigan.Previously, Cliffs had announced an impending closure of the Empire Mine. Until the amended commercial agreement was reached with ArcelorMittal, the Empire Mine did not have a customer for pellet production beyond FY14. In addition, the partnership arrangement was scheduled to expire automatically in December, without the mutual agreement of both companies to extend. With this decision, Cliffs and ArcelorMittal will extend the life of this mining operation into FY16. Cliffs is maintaining its FY14 full-year sales and production volume expectation of 22M-23M tons from its U.S. Iron Ore business. Cliffs' FY14 U.S. Iron Ore cash-cost-per-ton expectation is $65-$70. The company said that this extension would require very limited capital.

Cliffs Natural finalizes energy agreement with We Energies in U.P. of Michigan Cliffs Natural (CLF) has finalized an interim power agreement with Wisconsin Energy's (WEC) utility energy segment We Energies for its Michigan operations. The company stated that this is "one key step in a series of contemplated short and long-term agreements that are essential to the viability of its iron ore mines in the Upper Peninsula".